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Sorry about those Rs, my friends. My Shimmer sub is currently at 15 days, and I have two 28 days out at Ideomancer and Buzzy. The others are babies compared. Got a 4 day at Abomination and a 7 day at Drabblecast, which was passed up for final review, but after hearing from Alex, I think I'm in for a long wait at DC.

Finally some news!! Two form r's today from Shock Totem and Pank. Woo hoo!

Also didn't make the shortlist for telegraph short story comp again, although I'm not reporting this as a rejection as I have absolutely no faith they are even reading the stories they are sent. Is anyone else doing this comp? My feeling is they are skim reading at best, and they certainly aren't sending out R's. Deadline and announcement are only 4 days apart each month. And this is from 300 subs... I'm not buying it.

Decided to give a new pub a try, and went with Jukebox Serials on the third. Just received a message about 10 minutes ago saying that they are "accepting an author a week" and "the latest time of response is late August."

Well...I guess I'm in for the long haul. Because of their submissions system, there's no way to withdraw.

Something I've been curious about: Is it part of the Clarkesworld form rejection to say "hope you'll keep us in mind in the future"? I always try to convince myself it means they really want more, but I'm pretty sure it's part of the standard dismissal.

R from Missouri Review--but at least they had some nice things to say about my prose.
I sent them a 2011 W1S1 that TNY mentioned had 'evident merit' in its R, so I'm optimistic about this story's salability again.

As much as we wish we could, we can't publish every good story that comes our way. Truthfully, we're forced to return a great many stories with merits that make them well worthy of publication, including yours.

Your story reached the final stage of our selection process--one among an elite group.

During this final stage, our editorial team discusses the stories that make it this far. If you'll indulge me, I'd like to share some representative samples of what our editors had to say about yours:

*"Couldn't accept the premise of the story, that a grown man would believe and fret over the angel wing idea. If that's supposed to be a metaphor for larger ideas, then it fails for me."
*"I think this story was pretty charming. We all have beliefs and superstitions that we cling to, irrational or not."
*"I liked it, though the metaphor is a bit overdone. I suppose I didn't really see it as speculative so much as... not a hallucination, but... well, maybe it is supposed to be speculative."
*"I have to ask, what's with the stories of dismal, depressing parenthood? I just want to tell people to enjoy their kids more!"
*"I really wanted to not like this, but I did. Not enough to accept, though. It's a little overwrought."
*"The writing is quite nice and I like the pro-father sentiment. But, again, the plot is a little thin and it just feels a bit repetitive."

We wish you the best of luck finding a home for your story elsewhere, feel confident of your success in doing so, and hope to receive submissions from you in the future.

May the muse be ever by your side.

Sincerely,

---------------
Editor-in-Chief
Flash Fiction Online

Last edited by JWGriebel; 05-09-2012 at 04:56 PM.
Reason: messed up html

Something I've been curious about: Is it part of the Clarkesworld form rejection to say "hope you'll keep us in mind in the future"? I always try to convince myself it means they really want more, but I'm pretty sure it's part of the standard dismissal.

Yes, that's part of their standard form. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

11-day R from Shimmer. I'd call it personal but it's the closest thing to a form they've given me.

Did they actually comment on the story? 'Cause I'm wondering if all those personals being reported are really forms; it seems odd that one batch would receive form R's but all the rest are personals? Doesn't make sense.

Did they actually comment on the story? 'Cause I'm wondering if all those personals being reported are really forms; it seems odd that one batch would receive form R's but all the rest are personals? Doesn't make sense.

Yes, they made specific comments regarding the story and what "didn't work," but in a vaguer way than usual. It was pretty cut and dry compared to my two previous responses from them.

Same here--expecting a response any day now from Shimmer, Narrative, Shock Totem, Cincinnati Review and Apex--hopefully not all Rs on the same day!

That's quite a list!

I got a 25-day form R from EQMM today. This one, though, unlike most of the form Rs I've gotten from them in the past was signed by the head editor. So, they've either changed their form or this one made it past a first reader.